Andrew Fenton

A few years back, I read a comparison of garbage at dumps in the US and Mexico. The study discovered that the Mexican dumps had a lot more food refuse than the American dumps; that is, improved packaging, refrigeration and transportation meant that less food went to waste in the US. (It won't be any surprise, however, that the American dumps had a lot more packaging waste.)

Oohh, I'm going to disagree with this one - it's a concept used in the 20th century, but not exclusively ours.........the royal courts of England and France were using food as entertainment for more than 600 years. ← Sure, food has always been entertainment: that's why you have food at special occasions. Maybe what Soup really meant was the effect of consumer culture on food entertainment: both the explosion of food media and the revolutions in production and transportation that have brought a wide variety of cheap food to a large population. We can all-- at least all of us in the West-- be Apiciuses today.

Crud! I'm gonna have to bag on pizza this afternoon. Sorry I'll miss it...

Penne is pretty decent, but be warned that the service can sometimes be glacial (at least at lunch; don't know about dinner). Since the WXPN studios are right on the bridge, why not head somewhere on the western edge of Center City? Bistro St. Tropez wouldn't be any farther than Nan (though I'm not sure how long a dinner there takes.) Maybe Mama Palma's? It's fast and good, and probably only a 15 minute walk away.

Tonight after a traumatic mall experience (trauma being standard operating mall procedure for me) I calmed my nerves with dinner at Sweet Lucy's. Still impressive, and the price is right: two sandwiches (one pork, one brisket), extra sides of green beans and potato salad, and two ice teas (their ice tea is pretty good, by the way) came to a little less than twenty bones. Not bad. I prefer the brisket to the pork and the beans to the potatoes, but it's still the best BBQ in the city. Only downside was that it was mobbed: not difficult to get a table, but there was a long wait for food. Worth the wait, though, and I certainly wish them all the success in the world.

On a warm spring evening like yesterday, Tria is pretty close to my ideal of where I want to be. I met a couple of friends there, and we just sat outside for an hour or two, hanging out and enjoying some wine and cheese. It was entirely mellow, and just great. (What did I have? Let's see, a glass of the Cortese Bianco, a nice, bright Pinot Grigio: very refreshing warm-weather wine, and another of Insolia. This was a little more aggressive, but it went reasonably well with the Humboldt Fog and the pecorino we'd ordered.)

All right, after a slight delay (to prove I'm not one of those obsessives who can't sleep without posting my dinner experiences), here are some photos. I've left out the shots of Capaneus standing on his chair and singing "I'm a Little Teapot": for those, please PM me. First off, "We start with the best part of the chicken: the oyster!" But wait! Not much of a soup yet, is it? Not to worry, here's some green garlicky goodness; the oysters have returned to their natural liquid environment. (Sorry the photo turned out so crappy. To think, I was still sober and not bloated with food yet.) Continuing the nautical theme, next up we had the halibut, matey: Over at the cool kids' table, we were having a heated discussion about zombie movies as cultural signifiers. Alas, instead of braaaaaains, we were next served cheeeeeeks: And here, chorizo-wrapped rabbit saddle (giddyap!) with all the traditional fixins: This is the intermezzo pineapple tidbit. I think it turned out best of all the night's photos. A brief diversion, to show the amazingly cool bathroom faucet. It looks like the monolith from 2001. I'm pretty sure I saw a group of monkeys go into the bathroom and come back out knowing how to use tools... oh wait, that was the other table! Well, whatever: And finally, dessert: Good times, all around. Props to Capaneus for organizing dinner, and as always, to the Divine Miss Loeb for her uncanny ability to choose the right wines at the right price.

Yeah, Andrew! You weren't along for your wit and looks, you know! Sorry: we've been having some technical difficulties with the supercomputer (the PonderMatic 3000) here in sub-basement 2 of Fenton Labs. I'll try to have those photos tomorrow, after I've wiped away the tears of pain from all the cruelty I've received from y'all...

I'll be up in Providence over Memorial Day weekend. Am looking for some good food, especially Portugese. I've seen Estrella do Mar and Madeira mentioned: does anybody have thoughts about these or other restaurants?

I haven't been to Little Fish for a while, but walked by on Sunday and thought, y'know, I oughta head back there soon. It's a cute little place; the menu is almost entirely fish-centered (piscocentric? No, that sounds like an insult, like college students mouthing off at Thanksgiving about their parents' piscocentrism.) It's very solid, and the Sunday prix fixe is a good deal.

Maybe. Certainly I prefer the sucralose version of Diet Coke. But my wife-- who, as a native Georgian, has Coke flowing in her veins-- tried it and decided she preferred the aspartame version. I doubt that a full-on switch to sucralose would provoke a New Coke-style backlash, but I can see why a soda company would hesitate.

I noticed those same ingredients on a can of Fresca back in high school, but never knew what they were. So, googling spirits from the vasty deep, I found the following: ester of wood rosin: and brominated vegetable oil (the sketchier of the two- it's banned in lots of places): So it looks like they're both stabilizers. Like emulsifiers, only for sody pop.

So cute! I like the little wrapped bottle, like something a miniature hobo would carry around. Here's a question: it's alcoholic. Something true of most digestives, of course: Underberg's website claims it's 44% alcohol. That puts it into the high-proof liquor range-- so how, under PA's liquor laws, does DiBruno's get to sell it?

Wot's all this, then? Sounds like what destroyed the Titanic. Or a 1970's cartoon superhero.

Yeah, I'd be tempted to vote for the revolution in information technology and its effects on transportation. The recent New Yorker article about UPS makes a good case, using the specific example of lobsters: they're now available anywhere, anytime, with good quality and at a reasonable price.

I had a great dinner at Yemen Cafe on Friday. As others have said, it's really its own deal: not like Ethiopian or Somali food (though I've only had Somali once). Interesting stuff. Salta, in particular, is like nothing I've had before. I wasn't expecting a foamy dish, for sure, but liked it well enough, what with the little bits of vegetables, tiny flecks of egg, potato and lamb. Good accompaniment to the bread, and served with a Viking-sized hunk of roast lamb shoulder. I liked the loubiya as well: good, but not overwhelmingly exciting lamb stew. The fatah appetizer was another really unfamiliar dish: a big pile of shredded bread soaked in honey and spices and sprinkled with black sesame seeds. Honestly, it tasted more like Grandma's bread pudding than anything else: tasty, but the sort of thing I'd think to order for dessert rather than before the entree. But I'll confess that more than anything else, I was really blown away by the soup and its intense, concentrated lamb flavor. That, I could probably eat every day and be happy. Yow. I was there with a friend who has lived in Yemen, and he said the food is very true to what he ate there. He described the American version as different in two ways: first, there are more vegetables, and second, it's a lot better, because the quality of American meat is better. As he said, "American lambs eat grass and grain and stuff; Yemeni lambs eat mostly shell casings and old tires."

Dagnabit, I'm hungry now. You bastard, you.

I had a glass of this last night and can testify that even in its untamed state, it's really terrific. Really complex, with all kinds of smoky, leathery notes layered with fruit. It's really a crazy-go-nuts wine, and I think I'll buy a couple of bottles next week to lay down for, um, this summer...

No, I'd imagine not... was the coffee maker still usable afterwards? Funny image. Anyway, for coffee cola, I'd try adding coffee syrup to Coke. A lot less messy. I don't know about the technical issues, but they'd be a marketing nightmare. You'd have people screaming left and right about how Coke was seducing kids with the demon rum; it'd make Joe Camel look like the Care Bears. Or something like that.

Not in a grocery store, but at a restaurant (Vinnie D'Amato's on South Street: good, but overpriced roast pork Italian sandwich). I haven't yet checked the supermarket to see if they have it.

True, I should have mentioned that. I'll be living in Monteverde Vecchio, just up the hill from Trastevere and near the Villa Doria Pamphili. I know that there are is a small market in the neighborhood; if the Trastevere market is really good, it shouldn't be too far away. I'll definitely come up to Florence as well! Giovanni, thanks for the website recommendation; it looks like there's some really good stuff there.

Okay, according to Shola:

In a little less than three months, I'll be moving to Rome. It'll only be for a year, so I want to make sure I use that time efficiently, food-wise and otherwise. One of the perks of my job there is that most of my meals will be covered: five days a week, I'll be eating excellent home-style cooking prepared by little old Italian ladies. But on weekends, I'm on my own. I'll have a kitchen; nothing fancy, but I'll be able to take advantage of the great produce over there (in the past, I've just gazed longingly). I'd love to hear any advice anybody can give me about what I shouldn't miss over the course of the year. Restaurant advice is fine (especially inexpensive restaurants: I'm getting paid in dollars, not euros), but there are already a couple of threads for that. I'd especially love to hear about food shopping in Rome: where are the best markets, for cheese or wine or fish or whatever? What food-related festivals should I be on the lookout for? What should I read in advance? In general, what should I be sure not to miss? Any advice, pointers, or general information would, of course, be very appreciated. Hook me up!

I'm going to pretend that I don't know what you mean, but, ahem, given their name, I wouldn't be surprised! Hmmm, a tightly-packed bowl of macaroni and cheese? For comparison, check out the sign at "The Burrito Joint" at 6th and South: it features a burrito that has been rolled, um, suggestively...

Interesting, thanks for the clarification. I guess they didn't want another fiasco on their hands. But this seems like a big improvement.